Robin Kemp’s literary braindump

Please pass the chocolate

I am pleased to report that we’ll have yet another new colleague “joining” the Department of English: Karen Finley.

Karen will be teaching a Special Topics course for us (specifics forthcoming) during the 2008 May-mester.

Karen comes to us from New York City. She is Professor of Art and Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Performing Arts, New York University. She received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and performs and exhibits her work throughout the world. In addition to being an artist and performer, she has published six books — Shock Treatment, Enough Is Enough, Living It Up, Pooh Unplugged , A Different Kind of Intimacy and, most recently, George and Martha.
She’s also edited Aroused: A Collection of Erotic Writings. Her transgressive performances have long provoked controversy and debate.

Karen Finley is best known for her controversial performance art career, but she has exercised her talents in virtually every creative medium, publishing several books of prose and poetry, displaying collections of visual art, acting in several films (including one with Tom Hanks), and recording albums of poetic musings with dance-based backing tracks (including one with Sinéad O’Connor). Karen is the recipient of both an Obie Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

To say the least, I am thrilled Karen will be teaching in the Department of English here at GSU.

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I am sure that the performance poets in town are having simultaneous orgasms… you heard it here first.